Jury selection underway for Ontario dismemberment case

Carmen Montelongo, also known as Carmen Montenegro, was arrested on May 29, 2011 in the 900 block of East H Street in Ontario after she wheeled a trash can with a dismembered human body 200 yards from 735 N. Holmes Ave. She had exhumed dismembered remains of Wiggins from the backyard of the Holmes home. (Courtesy photo for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin)

RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> Jury selection has begun in the murder trial of Carmen Montelongo, the Riverside woman accused of killing and dismembering her ex-boyfriend in 2011.

Attorneys began selecting a jury panel Tuesday inside the West Valley Superior Courthouse, in Rancho Cucamonga. Opening statements are expected to be given Monday.

Montelongo, 46, also known as Carmen Montenegro, is charged in the death of 62-year-old Diamond Bar resident Samuel Wiggins Jr.

She was arrested May 29, 2011, shortly after being found wheeling a trash can with a dismembered human body about 200 yards from a residence on North Holmes Avenue in Ontario.

Montelongo, who pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, told a police officer the remains belonged to the “son-of-a-b---- that raped” her, according to evidence at the preliminary hearing.

Wiggins’ head and arms were found four days later in large flower pots at a home in Bell Gardens rented by Montelongo’s cousin.

Family members said they believe she buried Wiggins’ body in a hole in the Ontario home’s backyard a month earlier during what she said was a gardening project.

Witnesses at her preliminary hearing in October 2012 said Montelongo exhumed the remains of Wiggins from the backyard.

Matthew Bell testified that the woman asked him for help and said she tossed body parts into a trash can “like it was nothing.” Montelongo offered him a large amount of money and he agreed to help, but he never ended up touching the body parts, Bell testified.

He told the court that he saw a body in a bag, which was still partly underground, in the backyard. Outside of the bag was an amputated leg, Bell said.

Montelongo wanted to put the bag and its contents inside a trash can but she couldn’t lift it, Bell testified, so she ripped it open and started tossing individual body parts — including a rib cage — into the container.

After Montelongo put all the body parts in the trash can, she covered them with dirt, said Bell, who eventually left the house and called his mother and the police.